


Oaths Under Illness

by nimblermortal



Series: Marvel Wizards [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Gen, Illnesses, Ordeals, not you dd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 17:44:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18554671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nimblermortal/pseuds/nimblermortal
Summary: Steve's Ordeal, from Bucky's perspective.





	Oaths Under Illness

**Author's Note:**

> These addendums aren't very polished, but I've been sitting on them for a few years now, so it seemed like time to drag them out of the drawer.

When Steve found the Wizard’s Oath, the first thing he did was take it, so fast and eagerly he stumbled over the words. The second thing he did was show Bucky.

“This is what I’ve been saying!” he said. “This is what I’ve been trying to tell people all along!”

“Yeah, bud,” said Bucky, ruffling his hair even though he wasn’t that much taller than Steve just yet. “It sounds just like you.”

“So take it with me and we’ll be wizards together!”

Bucky was reaching for the book to play along when he caught Steve’s feverish eye and hesitated. “You’re serious about this,” he said.

“Yeah,” said Steve. When Bucky said nothing, he added, “Very.”

“Then, no,” said Bucky, and pressed the book one-handed to Steve’s chest. “I don’t think this stuff’s for me.”

Steve faltered, and he was that tiny kid Bucky had found once again, short-sighted and staring at the ground. Bucky leaned over, as he had before, and grabbed his shoulder, this time to pull him into a one-armed hug.

“I’m with you, buddy, til the end of the line,” he said. “But I don’t think this ‘for all Creation’s sake’ thing is my schtick. I’m here to guard growth. Your growth. There anything like that in your book?”

“I’ll look,” Steve said fiercely. And he did. He spent days cooped up indoors with that tome hidden behind the cover of a comic book. When Bucky asked him to play, he said, “I’m looking for you,” and Bucky knew that as long as he was there to find, Steve would find him. So he went out to play, and to wait.

And then Steve got measles.

He was very sick, was all Bucky knew at the time. The grown-ups said he might not live, but they said that every time scrawny Steve was sick. They said Bucky shouldn’t be near him or he’d get sick too, but they said that every time too. Bucky wasn’t worried until he was sitting by Steve’s bed at night and realized he could feel the heat coming off Steve from where he was sitting.

“Oh shit,” said Bucky, who wasn’t supposed to know that word. He ran half way to the door to fetch Aunt Sarah, hesitated looking back at Steve, ran half way back to pull the covers off -

He nursed Steve himself. He’d done it before, he knew what to do, even if this was much worse. Steve didn’t say anything, just poured sweat and twitched sometimes. Bucky packed the blankets about him some times and stripped them off others, and tried to dribble water down his throat whenever he wasn’t thrashing with fever. The scariest part was probably when he _wasn’t_ thrashing with fever, when he was only twitching, like he wanted to thrash but couldn’t quite move.

At one point in the night, Bucky found himself going through the motions half asleep, mumbling to Steve, “Don’t die. Don’t die.” Steve didn’t answer, but later that night he lolled his head toward Bucky, smiled faintly, and whispered, “I passed.”

Then he was still. At first Bucky thought he had died. It woulda been just like Steve to die with a beatific little smile on his lips. Then he realized Steve was just resting calmly for the first time that night, and he fell asleep with his forehead on Steve’s mattress. When he woke up in the morning, Steve was still breathing.

“Hey,” he said. “Let’s not tell Aunt Sarah how sick you were.”

Steve smiled blissful exhaustion at him. “Hey,” he said, and then he frowned, and seemed almost to sit up a bit. “You. Get out of here. He wasn’t part of this, and you know he’ll just fight you off anyway so go on before it gets worse for you.”

“‘Scuse me?” Bucky demanded. Steve grinned.

“You had measles,” he said.

“I had measles? _I_ had measles? Listen, pal, who’s been nursin’ you for the last two days…”

Steve got better. It was measles, so he got sick again soon after, and they had to burn all his bedclothes and there wasn’t money for any more and he said every time he got sick after that he could hear the devil laughing in the darkness - but he got better. He didn’t die.

When he stole Bucky back from the Nazis, he led him grinning to his tent and pulled out a familiar old book. “Look, Buck,” he said, pointing to a spread-out page so worn the book opened to it automatically. “Adjunct talent. I told you I’d find you.”


End file.
